Windsor retiree teaches English to Ukrainians, forging lifelong bonds
When Ronna Johnston was looking for something to fill her time after her retirement in 2022, she had no idea what was waiting.
She had spent the past 17 years as the director of web communications at the University of Northern Colorado. And retirement, for her, was kind of boring.
Looking for a way to give back, she signed up for Volunteermatch — an organization that does exactly what its name indicates. It sent her a handful of different opportunities, but none quite spoke to her.
Until she came across ENGIN. ENGIN is a nonprofit that connects English speakers around the world with Ukrainians looking to learn English. It matches teachers with students based on preferences, interests and availability. Johnston was hooked immediately.
“I was a real English nerd in school, and I’m pretty politically aware and motivated,” she said. “So I thought, ‘I want to try this.’ And it turned out to be one of the coolest things I’ve done in life.”
Johnston was matched with her first student, Dima, and they were off.
“I was nervous, of course. And so was he,” Johnston said. “But we just hit it off right away. And mostly that’s because he is just the coolest person.”
The two became fast friends over the next couple months. They bonded over a shared love of technology — Dima is a web developer — and a shared curiosity about artificial intelligence.
A couple months in, Dima asked if Johnston would be willing to take on another student, and she happily accepted. Dima’s friend Julia was also trying to learn English through ENGIN but was having a much different experience with her teacher at the time.
“I found out after I said yes that they are best friends,” Johnston said.
Dima and Julia — who both felt more comfortable going by only their first names because of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine — met more than a decade ago while attending a Ukrainian university. They met as part of a larger friend group and hit it off, staying close friends into their early 30s. The two lived in the same city for most of their adult lives, only recently moving away from one another.
So it just made sense to bring the group all together.
“Pretty soon, we decided that the three of us should talk together,” Johnston said. “And that has just been so funny, because they’re very different.”
Dima is very passionate and energetic — Johnston said it’s hard to get him to slow down when he’s speaking about something he really cares about. Julia is often the one to reel him back in with a friendly, “Dima, come back.”
Johnston said Julia, who works for a nonprofit providing aid to areas in need, is more collected and likes to know exactly what to expect coming into lessons.
The three now meet at 11 a.m. Mountain Time Thursdays — 8 p.m. in Ukraine. Between meetings, they keep in touch on the messaging app Telegram.
“I’ve learned that we have much more in common than I thought,” Johnston said. “They see the same movies, have most of the same conveniences and are very aware of pop culture references.” and myself, I managed to eloquently describe my adorable dog, but I dropped the ball when it came to talk about my girlfriend,” Dima said.
He said his girlfriend, who was sitting next to him in that moment, still hasn’t let him live it down.
“It led to a lot of teasing and jokes afterward,” Dima said. “That we still laugh about today.”
That interaction made him realize he needed to change his approach. And the fact that ENGIN gave him the opportunity to speak conversational English with someone who grew up speaking the language was crucial.
Julia said she owes her experience with ENGIN to Dima. Not only did Dima introduce her to Johnston after Dima’s first teacher wasn’t working out, but he was the reason she joined the program to begin with.
Although Dima may have been the reason Julia joined ENGIN, Johnston is the reason she has stuck with it.
After getting to know Johnston, Julia said, the studentteacher relationship quickly began to look much more like a friendship. And that friendship has grown over time.
“We frequently discussed our personal lives and families, so a bond developed,” Julia said. “We transcended the roles of students and teacher to become true friends.”
Dima praised Johnston’s ability to disarm them immediately by making them laugh. They said they both felt comfortable immediately.